


You Don't Need The Sun To Keep You Warm (When You've Got Arms)

by NightSongLightning



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety Attacks, Don't Make This Weird, Dream Team SMP Roleplay (Video Blogging RPF), Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, I Can't Believe I Wrote Minecraft Fanfiction, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Multi, Polyamory, Sad Alexis | Quackity, Sad Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Some Fluff, Some Of This Is Just Fluff, Sorry I Don't Know How To Write Characters Apparently, Tags Are Hard, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, but i wanted to post it anyways, i kind of hate this, this is about the characters not the people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-23 08:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30053004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightSongLightning/pseuds/NightSongLightning
Summary: Karl Jacobs tries to hide time traveling anomalies from his fiancés, it doesn't go so well.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 2
Kudos: 122





	You Don't Need The Sun To Keep You Warm (When You've Got Arms)

**Author's Note:**

> //Content Warning: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks! Minor Cursing.  
> Stay safe reading <3//
> 
> (Title from Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts)
> 
> This is about the characters, not the people. Please do not make this weird. (Its already weird I really don't even know what I'm writing anymore-)  
> If any creators express any discomfort with this, I will gladly take it down.  
> Happy reading!

_Wow, for once that actually ended well._ Karl tiredly mused, finishing the final sentence in his most recent book. With a slightly shaking hand, he signed it with as much flourish as he could muster and hung it on the wall with the others. Sighing in weary contentment, he ran a hand through his curly hair as he gazed around his ever-expanding library. He didn’t like time travel-being forced into different timelines against his will, losing time, losing memories (he hated that)-but sometimes, very occasionally, when everything had turned out okay, he was able to see the beauty in it. 

_He could travel through time! He could see stories that no one else could, he was actually needed, he-_

Karl stopped short. He brought his hand in front of his face, still holding a lock of hair, staring at it in disbelief. His hair was...Long. Longer than it should have been. In fact, it went down past his shoulders and curled around his chin. 

_That wasn’t right._

He’d cut it recently. That day, in fact. Short enough that it tucked behind his ears and didn’t get in his eyes when he needed to run from people or hide it behind a mask-how had it gotten so long?...How long had he been gone?

Exhaustion completely forgotten, Karl shifted his bag over his shoulder and quickly climbed the ladder leading out of his hidden library. 

_He...He had to find someone. He had to see how long he’d been gone. Where...where was…?_

Karl froze, strangling the bag’s strap. He couldn’t think of who to go to. He couldn’t think of anyone in his timeline. No, timeline made it sound like this wasn’t his time, wasn't his home-

“Karl? What’re you doing up?”

His mental spiral came to an abrupt stop, and he whipped around, holding his hair behind his neck with one hand so that no one would be suspicious, no one had to know-

“Karl?” The man in front of him tilted his head in confusion, walking forward to place a hand on Karl’s shoulder. He was wearing nightclothes, but he still had on his beanie, his characteristic beanie, and Karl instinctively relaxed when he saw him, untensing and leaning into his touch but all the while his mind kept screaming at him because-

_Because he didn’t know who this guy was._

His body did, and some part of his mind did, because he felt safe, he felt loved, but for the life of him he couldn’t place the man’s name, or remember how he knew him. 

Karl began to breath faster and jerked back, still holding his hair with one hand. He knew that this person couldn’t see, couldn’t know- 

The man’s face held so many emotions, crammed into one place. Confusion, sadness, even a little anger. Karl felt bad for hurting him. He just wanted to go back to the man’s embrace, say he was sorry, hug him back, but he didn’t know this guy. He couldn’t do that. 

So Karl quickly backed away, his back hitting the door and hand grasping for the handle blindly.

The floorboards creaked, and suddenly another man came to stand next to the first. 

“Wha?? Quackity, what’re you-” The second murmured, looking at the first as he groggily rubbed sleep out of his eyes. That quickly evaporated and transformed into worry when he saw Karl. 

“Karl, are you ok? It’s like, 2am.” 

“Y-yeah. Yeah I’m fine. Just needed...just needed a drink of water.” Karl lied, finally finding the doorknob. 

The one called Quackity just looked at him with an odd expression, and muttered something like, _“outside?”_ But as Karl tried to open the door, the second rushed forward and took his hand, stopping him. Karl startled, his other hand reaching down and trying to push the mans’ off. Letting his hair tumble down around his shoulders. 

The two stared at it in disbelief. Karl immediately tucked it back, but it was far too late. 

“L-listen,” he stammered to their astonished expressions, “I...it’s not what it looks like.” Then, giving up on the façade, Karl whirled around and pushed the door open with his shoulder. 

The cold winter night air hit him like a truck, blowing straight through his jacket. It was a clear night, and the sky glittered like someone had crushed a diamond and thrown the jewels across it. After a moment’s hesitation, Karl bolted out into the lawn, his breath coming hard and fast. He wasn’t sure where he was going, or even really why he was running, but he knew that these people mattered to him, and they couldn’t know. They couldn’t. He would find a way to change it, time travel back. Cut his hair before they could see it, act like everything was normal. Act like he knew who they were. 

A mix of frustration and confusion and cold clouded his vision, and Karl had to scrub at his eyes to clear them. And so he completely missed the hole in the ground. He went down hard, ankle turning and hands burying into the fresh snow. Karl just watched in astonishment as red seeped out around it, hands burning. Or maybe there was no red, maybe it was in his mind messing up, like it seemed to do so often those days. Maybe he wasn’t even there, maybe he was in the In-Between or at an ancient masquerade or a future city or-

Karl was jerked out of his daze when two people grabbed his shoulders to keep him from falling. 

Only then did he hear their voices, hear the fear and desperation in them.

_“-arl!”_

_He couldn’t breath, where was he? What time was he in?_

Hands clasped his shoulders. 

“Karl, what’s happening?!”

With an anguished cry, Karl shoved both men away and scrambled back. Tears blurred their faces. They looked terrified, and he wanted to comfort them, let them know he was ok, but he didn’t know them. And so he said so. 

“Stop acting like you know me!” He sobbed, spitting out the lie. His hair fell into his eyes, sticking to the tears and melted snow. _“I don’t know you. I don’t know you guys.”_

Both men froze.

“Karl..?” Quackity choked out, all amusement long gone from his voice. 

“I don’t know you!” 

Silence. 

The men exchanged terrified glances. Then, slowly, the second man stood up and began to approach Karl, hands held in front of him as one might with a scared animal. When he was close enough, he kneeled down to Karl’s level and met his eyes. 

They were filled with pain, so much pain. Confusion. Sorrow. The man’s eyes searched his, and pulled an answer out of them. 

“You...you really don’t know us.” He whispered. 

Silence. 

Karl fucking hated silence. 

Shakily, the man stood up and moved away, pulling Quackity out of range. He watched them go, and hung his head, filled with a deep, throbbing sense of loss. 

_He should know them. He does know them. Why doesn’t he know them?_

Karl heard yelling. The two were yelling. One sounded like he was crying. 

_“Why doesn’t he-”_

_“What happened to him-?”_

_“His hair…”_

Karl coughed and raised a hand to his head, digging it into his long, traitorous hair, the other clenching at the snow. It grounded him, and he slowly, slowly, he was able to breathe. This had all spiraled out of control so fast, but maybe he could salvage it. Say it was all an act, a funny prank-

The man came back over to his side and hesitantly took Karl’s hand, drawing it slowly out of his hair. Karl couldn’t meet his eyes, staring resolutely at the snow, the chill soaking into his veins as the blood seeped out. He felt like that, like all his memories were slowly draining away into other times, into the In-Between, leaving him with nothing but an empty, dead heart pumping with regret.

“Karl. Karl, look at me. Look at me, okay?”

He raised his eyes, bracing for...For something. Anger. Hatred.

There was none of that. 

He looked sad, scared, but calm. Comforting.

“My name is Sapnap.” He smiled, genuinely, and pointed to the other man. “That’s Quackity. Sorry if we scared you. Do you..want to come inside? It’s pretty cold out here. We can talk more there, or not. And you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

Karl considered it for a moment, but it wasn’t really a choice. It was cold out, and they were warm. Inside his home-Their home?-Was warm. Yeah, their home. That felt right.

He grabbed Sapnap’s hand with a firm grip and allowed the other man to pull him up. As he calmed down, Karl remembered that hand. Their hands, heartbeats pulsing together. In tandem with another. Karl rushed forward and took Quackity’s palm as well, and holding both of their hands felt right. Undoubtedly, certainly right. Quackity looked surprised, but when their eyes met, his face curled into a smile and he squeezed Karl’s hand right back. 

They walked back to the house like that, their hands knowing everything that their minds couldn’t think, warmth saying everything that their mouths couldn't speak.  
Karl wished that they could stay like that forever, not needing to say anything. Just knowing everything that was needed in that moment.

But all too soon it ended, and Karl and Quackity sat on the couch, and Sapnap went to grab hot chocolate for them. 

Karl wanted to reach for Quackity again, but the space between them felt infinite. 

_He just wanted to take his hand again._

But he didn’t take it, and he didn’t say anything. And so there was silence.

Sapnap came back, two mugs in his hands, one tucked precariously under his arm. He came to a stop next to Karl first, who relieved him of the latter. Warmth spread up his cold hands, and he was surprised to feel his heartbeat pulsing, pressed to the ceramic, right next to a faded Winnie-the-Pooh. 

He was even more surprised when he remembered it. 

_It was a frigid winter night, and the wind kept knocking the branches of the trees into the window panes, stopping any of them from getting sleep. So they’d all gathered around on the couch, smothered in blankets, surrounded by pillows, and geared with hot chocolate, and watched a dumb movie. Something boring, rather plotless. What had mattered more was the three of them, with their warmth, their joy, curled up together. It was a few days after...Right after they’d gotten…_

He couldn’t remember. 

Karl wanted to scream at the unfairness of that, but he was also extremely grateful. His mind had confirmed what he’d already known-

These people-Sapnap, Quackity-They were important to him. He loved them, and they loved him. 

And despite the panic bubbling up at the fact that he’d forgotten them, still couldn’t really remember them, he felt warm and safe. And happy.

“So, do you want to...Talk?”

Karl jolted and turned to his friends, who similarly had their hands wrapped around their mugs. He didn’t really want to talk, didn’t really want to involve them after he’d been warned so many times by the In-Between not to tell anyone, (Or else). But he had to. He trusted these people, and they trusted him, and they needed answers. So did he, in all honesty. 

So he told them. He told them about his time travel, and the In-Between, and his ‘adventures.’ He told them about all the people he’d met, some of whom looked like people he knew, looked like them. He told them about all the times that he’d seen. All the ways that he’d died. 

He didn’t tell them about his memory. Or his hair.

But they asked anyways, like he knew they would. 

Because as time went on, as he spilled all of his deadly secrets, he felt a weight lifting from him. A fog, almost. And he remembered more and more. 

“Why do you forget things, then?”

 _He didn’t know._

“I…” Karl hesitated. “I think it’s some sort of anomaly. Like, I’m...Like I’m leaving bits of myself in other times. And other things rush in to fill their place. The memories from my travels, stuff like that. But I don’t want to lose my memories. I don’t have any say in what I lose.” His voice broke at that. “And I think sometimes things mess up. Time stretches, or bends, or something. Like..My hair. It grew so fast...Like I was gone for months instead of hours. That’s...That has never happened before.”

“Karl…” Sapnap questioned slowly, “How long have you been doing this…?”

“Months. Years.” He spat bitterly. “It’s been a long time. I’ve lost count. When I was younger, I thought it was fun. I didn’t have to follow a script. Now it’s mostly just stressful. And sad. Because I forget things I don’t want to, things that matter to me. Like you guys.”

“Do you...Remember us now, then?” Quackity asked hopefully, placing a hand on his arm. “And are you...ok…? Can we do anything to stop this?”

“I…” Karl hesitated.

_Did he remember them?_

He remembered their smiles. Their warmth. He felt safe and loved and happy with them, and he felt like he belonged. He didn’t remember everything, but he remembered the emotions connected with everything. 

“..Somewhat. I know you guys. I know you matter to me, and I know that I love you guys.”

They were all silent.

Karl chuckled uneasily.  
“Sorry, that sounded cheesy.”

Quackity choked on a laugh. Sapnap snorted. And then, all at once, the three cracked up. 

Maybe it was nerves. Maybe it was the hour, or the ridiculous circumstance. It wasn’t even that funny. But whatever the reason, the trio couldn’t stop laughing until Sapnap was crying and Karl’s sides burned and Quackity had fallen off the couch. Suddenly, Quackity got serious. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked at Karl.

“But don’t think that whoever is doing this to you is going to get away with it. We will find a way to stop this.”

Karl smiled reassuringly, dangling his arm down next to the other man, who took it and pulled himself back onto the couch. Then he wrapped Karl and Sapnap up in a hug that the former melted into. 

_It wasn’t okay, nothing was really okay. But it felt a little more so with Quackity and Sapnap’s arms around him._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! Thank you so so much for reading whatever the heck this is, I really love you all. Have a great day!


End file.
